The Federal Office for Civil Protection and disaster relief (BBK) expects extreme wear events such as floods in Germany to increase. That is what president of BBK, Christoph Unger, said. There have been extreme wear events in certain regions of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia, which would not have been expected re.

Unger refore calls for warning systems to be expanded for extreme wear events. In particular, smartphone apps for disaster warning would need to be furr developed, said catastrophe protector to newspapers of Funke Media Group.

The BBK offers Nina app for warning of disasters. "We currently need to finance development of EU project funds," Unger said. That is not satisfactory. Via Nina, warnings of satellite-based modular warning System (MOWAS) of BBK can be played out. The app is used according to BBK of about 1.7 million users.

However, federal States and ir districts cooperate differently with Mowas. For example, Hesse and Bavaria have no transmission stations connected to system to warn against local hazards. However, all federal states have transmitting stations connected to Mowas for nationwide danger situations.

Civil protection is a country matter

The reason for differences is that, since end of cold War, civil protection has largely been task of countries. Countries, counties and district-free cities largely decide on ir own responsibility when and how y warn ir citizens before and during disasters. The Confederation only alerts in case of major national hazard situations, for example in event of a war.

By spreading smartphones, apps are becoming more and more important for warning of disasters. However, distribution of responsibility has led to development of several applications that can be used depending on place of residence. Thus, largest Warnapp, Katwarn with 2.5 million users, is used by isolated federal states, counties and district-free cities. However, when and how app is warned, those responsible will decide for mselves. You also have to pay for use of app – Katwarn costs one-time 15,000 euros and annually 3,000 euros for technical support.

The app was used, for example, during incident in Munich 2016, but came to its limit and warned citizens only after 8pm – although police had already reported shots at Munich shopping centre eet at around 6 p.m. Katwarn shared his server capacity after shooting spree.

After all, according to BBK, developers of different apps cooperate with each or. Both Katwarn and app Biwapp used by some cities bind warnings of BBK.

Date Of Update: 06 November 2017, 12:03